Well, Durant failed to come up big down the stretch of game 4 and game 5. He's an incredible player overall, but there's still room to grow and develop. I think the Grizzlies have a good shot at getting to the Finals now, and if they're allowed to play their game, a puncher's chance in winning it all. But if they're not allowed to play their game and they face the Heat, they'll probably get steamrolled. Still, really love this Grizzlies team, and I'm glad they've made it to the WCF.

Anyone see a sort of trend in a sense? Memphis looks like the PIstons of 04...Heavy favorites Lakers get to the finals only to get dismantled by a team-orientated team in the Pistons....Im not comparing the 2013 Heat to the 04 Lakers but I can seriously see a finals showdown where Heat is heavy favorites as they get beat down by Memphis.

thisbjgz wrote:Anyone see a sort of trend in a sense? Memphis looks like the PIstons of 04...Heavy favorites Lakers get to the finals only to get dismantled by a team-orientated team in the Pistons....Im not comparing the 2013 Heat to the 04 Lakers but I can seriously see a finals showdown where Heat is heavy favorites as they get beat down by Memphis.

History always repeats itself..Memphis 2013 champs lego!

I don't think the current Heat team would be heavily favorite against the current Grizzlies. Grizzlies have personnel to somewhat stop Lebron but the Heat can't contain Randolph and Gasol. Even Conley would be a tough match-up for them. The Spurs would be to them harder to crack.

Forward Three wrote:Well, Durant failed to come up big down the stretch of game 4 and game 5. He's an incredible player overall, but there's still room to grow and develop. I think the Grizzlies have a good shot at getting to the Finals now, and if they're allowed to play their game, a puncher's chance in winning it all. But if they're not allowed to play their game and they face the Heat, they'll probably get steamrolled. Still, really love this Grizzlies team, and I'm glad they've made it to the WCF.

Tough enough to replace a quality starter, let alone a top notch All NBA player, and a point guard at that. Russ may be trigger happy too often, but he's obviously still very important to the offense. I wrote off the Thunder the instant I saw that he was out for the season, so this result is expected. If anything in my eyes, as a team they somewhat overachieved by finding a way to be in every game right down to the end.

This team was just Durant plus a bunch of generally overrated role players. Even with Westbrook healthy, this is still a very different Thunder without Harden.

And if Durant choked/ came up short, his teammates were right there with him. As poorly as his overall shooting percentage was vs the Grill (42%), only Reggie Jackson shot better for the Thunder. He actually was averaging 32/12/7 on 50% shooting before the two poor shooting games to end the season.

The combo of an elite defense and teammates who cant offer much would do that to you though.

"Come hell or high water we're gonna be there again. Its just something about the Lakers organization. Mitch is really, really good at it, he's really really good man...."

gill wrote:Ibaka and Martin should share the blame. They were awful for most of the series.

Ibaka kept firing even though he was missing badly. Randolph was laying off sensing that his counterpart was getting frustrated. On the other side, Ibaka could not contain Z-Bo's "old man" game. Randolph would just jump into his chest negating the space for the shot block but has the dexterity and touch to kiss it off the glass. Martin had only one good game in this series I think.

Let's give credit to Tony Allen too. Love his defensive game where he can cover spots 1 to 3. Chris Paul in the first round then moving over to Durant. He was undersized but just hounded Durant into misses and made him work to get his shot off.